Texas church gunman used same rifle as Las Vegas, Newtown, Aurora, San Bernardino mass shooters

The 26-year-old gunman who opened fire inside a small Texas church used an AR-15 rifle, the weapon of choice in many other mass shootings.

Devin Patrick Kelley used a military-style Ruger AR-556 to kill 26 and wound 20 worshippers inside the First Baptists Church in Sutherland Springs during Sunday services.

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The gun also has been used in mass shootings in Las Vegas, Nev. on Oct. 1; Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, 2012; Aurora, Colo. on July 20, 2012; and San Bernardino, Calif. on Dec. 2, 2015.

The gunman in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. used a Sig Sauer MCX, a gun that has similar features to the AR-15.

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Gun experts say the rifle is so commonly used by mass murderers because it is based on the military's M-16 rifle.

"All rifles that have started as military rifles always become popular," said Jerold Levine, author of the book "New York Assault Weapon Laws."

The gunman who killed 26 people at a Texas church used an AR-15 rifle, the weapon of choice in many other mass shootings. (Lisa Marie Pane/AP)

"You can't get any better of an endorsement for a gun than its use by the government," he added.

Kelley served a member of the U.S. Air Force. But he was kicked out after he was convicted of "assault on his spouse and assault on their child" in 2012, records show.

On Sunday, he was chased away from the church by a neighbor who heard the shots and grabbed his own gun. Kelley was found dead inside his vehicle after he ran off the road near the county line.

As for the AR-15, the National Rifle Association calls the weapon "America's rifle" and has long touted its effectiveness.

During the Clinton administration, many models of the rifle and other guns that were too similar to military-style weapons were banned. The federal ban, in effect from 1994 to 2004, included any semiautomatic rifle with a pistol grip and a bayonet mount.

Bullets fired from the weapon are capable of disintegrating bone and they leave the barrel three times faster than a round fired from a handgun. A body hit can be left with a massive exit wound the size of a softball.

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Police officers on the scene of the fatal shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., on Sunday. (Nick Wagner/AP)

The semiautomatic rifle is also easily turned into a fully automatic weapon, with videos on YouTube showing how to do it, gun experts say.

In Las Vegas, Stephen Paddock, 64, used at least 12 of the so-called bump or slider stocks to turn his semiautomatic rifles into a continuous-fire killing machine. They function by using the recoil of the rifles to accelerate the rate of fire.

A bill to ban those devices has stalled in Washington.

The AR-15 rifle was originally built by Eugene Stoner, a former Marine, in the late 1950s.